TITANS' TOWERS
First Person Shooter / Tower Defense
Titans' Towers was my capstone project for Full Sail University. I was a part of Team Titans with 5 of my peers. We wanted a project that we could learn a lot from as we went through the development process, as well as a project that would showcase what we were capable of for our respective portfolios.
We settled on the genre of the game after discussing what we could learn the most from. A tower defense game provided enough complexity and balancing issues that it seemed perfect to cut our teeth on. To make the game more accessible for the average player. we decided to make it first person as well.
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My contributions to the game include the core gunplay (including shooting, aiming, reloading, and ammunition), designing multiple levels through multiple iterations, from blockmesh to final passes with lighting and art assets.
"ASSAULT ON TITANS' TOWER"
Entry level designed for the campaign
THE TOWER
The tower featured in the level serves as the landmark of the level. The level's purpose was designed to give life to the title of the game, as well as serve as a starting point for players to learn and practice the tower placing system.
The player begins the level on an elevator and descends into the lobby. They are then greeted with flashing red lights and small sirens indicating that the tower is under attack. A beam of lights guides the player out the door and into the playfield. The lobby area is meant to be a small area that does not serve any functional purpose to the game; it is merely just an explorable area that adds to the lore of the world.
LAST STAND
As I mentioned before, this level was designed to serve as the starting point for the player. As such, it features a rather simple building grid that I called "Last Stand." The player was to protect the tower from the enemies that would spawn and attack the CORE.
Last Stand is a symmetrical, straight path for the player to build on. It teaches the player how to manage their available walls and how certain towers work. It gives the basic skills that players will use throughout each level.
THE CAFETERIA
The cafeteria is found behind an impassable door that the player can see through but cannot actually explore. I meant for this area to be another portion that adds to the lore of the world and a neat area that the player could find if they looked around enough. Just like the lobby, it does not serve any functional part of the level; it just adds to the lore.
I added these areas into my level for two reasons. The first was to work on my level designing and environmental storytelling skills. The second was as a homage to our reference game for our project: Sanctum 2. This game featured lots of areas like the cafeteria that didn't add anything to the gameplay but were fun to explore.
CLOUD CITY
Vertical Map over the Water
VERTICALITY
A key design pillar for the map was verticality. I wanted to challenge both the player and the traditional map layout of the tower-defense genre by forcing the player to build up and down on ramps instead of a straight path.
QUICK TRAVERSAL
A challenge I had while designing the level was providing the player an accessible way to quickly travel up and down the map should the need arise. I came up with the idea of air ducts that would shoot both air and the player is a certain direction. For my prototype, I made them jump pads. To introduce the player to them, the player is spawned on a separate platform away from the main play area and the only way to access it is by using a jump pad. Once across, the player will find three more jump pads that send the player up varying heights to quickly access different levels of the ramp.
EBB AND FLOW
While the tower-genre genre provides a natural ebb-and-flow, this particular level is hectic and picks the pace up quickly. I wanted to be able to balance that out and provide places for the player to back off if they need to and remain active while on the sidelines. There are multiple places around that map that provide relief from the enemy and advantageous positions if wanted.
